Biden-Harris administrator sued over blocked investigation into Iran-linked Pentagon official

A government watchdog group is suing the Biden-Harris administration for obstructing a year-long investigation into senior Pentagon official Ariane Tabatabai, the outed member of a secret pro-Iran influence group run by the hardline regime’s government.

America First Legal, a nonprofit watchdog group led by former Trump administration officials, filed its lawsuit against the Pentagon on Tuesday, accusing the agency of blocking its investigation into Tabatabai and other senior U.S. officials last year, it said in a copy of the file received by the Washington Free Beacon.

The organization originally requested a series of internal documents from the Pentagon and the State Department as part of an investigation into Tabatabai’s relationships with a number of pro-Tehran supporters, including one of her close associates, former Iran envoy Robert Malley, who is under investigation for abuse confidential information. The investigation was launched amid growing concerns that Tabatabai, Malley and other senior Biden-Harris officials were engaging in back-channel diplomacy with Iran in hopes of strengthening ties with the hardline regime.

The Biden-Harris administration appears unbothered by these concerns. Tabatabai was recently promoted to deputy assistant secretary of defense in Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s office, where she leads the Armed Forces Education and Training Division. She was offered the job last month, shortly before US intelligence leaks about Israel’s preparations for an impending attack on Iran.

In addition to the lawsuit, America First Legal provided the Free beacon with a cache of newly submitted Freedom of Information Act requests asking for details about who may have shared that information. The leak, which included top-secret U.S. intelligence documents, is believed to have been motivated by a desire to hinder the Jewish state ahead of the November election.

Together, the joint lawsuit and FOIA campaign could help uncover previously unknown details about the Biden-Harris administration’s private conversations about Iran and Israel, the ongoing Middle East conflict and behind-the-scenes efforts to resume diplomacy with Tehran during the administration’s administration Bringing Democrats to light years in office.

“The Biden-Harris administration has appointed pro-Iran apologists and influence agents to sensitive positions in the Defense and State Departments,” said Reed Rubinstein, senior vice president of America First Legal. “Our lawsuit and the latest round of investigative demands should shed useful light on the role these individuals may have played in passing or passing on U.S. intelligence information to the mullahs.”

In its lawsuit, the watchdog group accused the Defense Department of intentionally slowing its request for internal documents and communications, including encrypted text messages sent between Malley, Tabatabai and anyone within the Iranian government.

The first request for this information was sent in October 2023, shortly after it was announced that Malley had been suspended from his post amid an investigation into his handling of classified information. It also followed reports that Tabatabai, a former State Department official who now works on classified matters at the Pentagon, was a member of the Iran Experts Initiative, a vast influence network created by the Iranian government and allegedly including two other Malley associates.

The monitoring group’s search parameters included the keywords “Robert Malley,” “IEI,” “Hamas,” “Hezbollah,” “Iran,” “Zionist,” “release,” and “TS/SCI,” and related to classified information.

The Pentagon was required by law to respond to the organization’s FOIA request within 20 days, but missed that deadline, claiming that a “complex processing queue” and “unusual circumstances” prevented it from producing the relevant documents, according to reports Emails exchanged between the Department of Defense and American First Legal in 2023.

In its latest series of FOIA requests, American First Legal, meanwhile, asked the Pentagon, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the State Department and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to turn over documents identifying all internal communications officials they contacted since the secret intelligence information in question involving Israel became public.

The top-secret intelligence agency originally appeared on a pro-Iranian Telegram channel before spreading online, reportedly forcing Israel to postpone its attack on Iran to prevent it from preparing for defense.

While the identity of the leaker or leakers is unknown, outside groups such as America First Legal suspect that any number of members of the Biden-Harris administration may have released the information to thwart Israel’s retaliation, in retaliation for Tehran’s rocket attack on the country on Wednesday October 1st. The Pentagon denied this week that Tabatabai was involved in the revelation or is a person of interest in the investigation.

America First Legal requires every agency to release all records related to “Iran,” “Israel,” “Leak,” “Investigation” and “Telegram” — a broad request that sheds light on the government’s private response to the leak could give top secret documents.